Eight red, black and white paintings. All in three layers: a flat black or red background, an object at the focal point and some signs and symbols applied on top. All created around a delicate and beautiful living creature: a woman, a cat or a horse. And all with disrelated titles. The portrait of a woman with clothes-pegs in her hair titled + For Spring and Summer, or a Persian cat with pulled ears titled + A Cup of Tea, all accentuating the dominant presence of the painter.

(Am I seeing the nightmares of a painter?)

Reset

First time: In each painting, the painter has selected an image. It does not matter whether he has picked it from the real or the virtual world. Obviously, he has manipulated them favorably: deleted their background, made women’s hair loose, blurred them, inserted some electronic signs and symbols or placed the figures in the darkness. What stands out is contrast and juxtaposition. The contrast between the glossiness of red and dullness of black; between a sweet sleep and an immense amount of darkness and void; between the smoothness of blurred surfaces and sharpness of the crown like clothes-pegs and bitterness of a woman’s face; between the curved forms of the fans and the geometric patterns of hardware architecture. Is it the softness and cuteness of a Persian cat that we see or its blind eyes and pulled ears? Is it the charming and seductive gaze of a girl that he highlights or the clothes-pegs in her hair? Are we to see the gallant bowing of a horse or its exposed jawbone fastened to its back?

(I am seeing the eye-catching nightmares of a painter.)

Reset again: The connection is interrupted. The message is unclear. Is it me or the painting? Maybe this is the point. Not being able to connect. Not being “able” to connect or not “feeling like” or not being “capable” of connecting? Is it me or the painter? It should be the scatteredness of mind. My mind or that of the painter? The visual incoherence might also be a significance, so might be the added objects and symbols. The clothes-pegs signify worries and fear and pain and the dark background of the sleeping girl denotes her social or emotional void. The joy and buoyancy of head banging and loosening of the hair happens in a closed circuit that requires a reset. And, choosing + Black Earring 1 and 2 for the distorted long-shot of a woman and a distorted close-up of another woman? Is the connection interrupted and message unclear?

(Am I seeing the eye-catching nightmares of a painter?)

Last reset: Reza Azimian’s recent series is clearly and undoubtedly figurative and representational, from both aesthetic and semiological point of view. Nevertheless, the painterly accent and the repetition of visual forms dissociate them from being narrative. None of the paintings implies a particular space, time and story. None of them arouses any emotional or stimulating feeling and does not make viewers recall their personal experiences or memories. The artist has fashioned this distance consciously and deliberately by using his painterly technique and influential visual language. It is the distance between us and our thoughts, between us and the others, between us and our cognitive power and its impact on our personal and social connections. It is in fact the distance shaped by our scattered and absent mind. In his latest series, Reza Azimian’s aesthetic and conceptual language is chosen to be alienation and it requires viewers’ conscious encounter. He has picked an analytical technique to reflect an analytical matter. This is how he guides his audience through an analytical path by alienating them from what they see and supposedly comprehend, portraying, “beautifully”, the distance he believes is born out of people’s distracted and scattered minds.

Overview and HistoryTehran is the capital of Iran and the largest city in the Middle East, with a population of fifteen million people living under the peaks of the Alborz mountain range.Although archaeological evidence places human activity around Tehran back into the years 6000BC, the city was not mentioned in any writings until much later, in the thirteenth century. It's a relatively new city by Iranian standards.But Tehran was a well-known village in the ninth century. It grew rapidly when its neighboring city, Rhages, was destroyed by Mongolian raiders. Many people fled to Tehran.In the seventeenth century Tehran became home to the rulers of the Safavid Dynasty. This is the period when the wall around the city was first constructed. Tehran became the capital of Iran in 1795 and amazingly fast growth followed over the next two hundred years.The recent history of Tehran saw construction of apartment complexes and wide avenues in place of the old Persian gardens, to the detriment of the city's cultural history.The city at present is laid out in two general parts. Northern Tehran is more cosmopolitan and expensive, southern Tehran is cheaper and gets the name "downtown."Getting ThereMehrabad airport is the original one which is currently in the process of being replaced by Imam Khomeini International Airport. The new one is farther away from the city but it now receives all the international traffic, so allow an extra hour to get there or back.TransportationTehran driving can be a wild free-for-all like some South American cities, so get ready for shared taxis, confusing bus routes and a brand new shiny metro system to make it all better. To be fair, there is a great highway system here.The metro has four lines, tickets cost 2000IR, and they have segregated cars. The women-only carriages are the last two at the end, FYI.Taxis come in two flavors, shared and private. Private taxis are more expensive but easier to manage for the visiting traveler. Tehran has a mean rush hour starting at seven AM and lasting until 8PM in its evening version. Solution? Motorcycle taxis! They cut through the traffic and any spare nerves you might have left.People and CultureMore than sixty percent of Tehranis were born outside of the city, making it as ethnically and linguistically diverse as the country itself. Tehran is the most secular and liberal city in Iran and as such it attracts students from all over the country.Things to do, RecommendationsTake the metro to the Tehran Bazaar at the stop "Panzda Gordad". There you can find anything and everything -- shoes, clothes, food, gold, machines and more. Just for the sight of it alone you should take a trip there.If you like being outside, go to Darband and drink tea in a traditional setting. Tehranis love a good picnic and there are plenty of parks to enjoy. Try Mellat park on a friday (fridays are public holidays), or maybe Park Daneshjou, Saaii or Jamshidieh.Remember to go upstairs and have a look around, always always always! The Azadi Tower should fit the bill; it was constructed to commemorate the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire.Tehran is also full of museums such as:the Contemporary Art Museumthe Abghine Musuem (glass works)the 19th century Golestan Royal Palace museumthe museum of carpets (!!!)Reza Abbasi Museum of extraordinary miniaturesand most stunning of all,the Crown Jewels Museum which holds the largest pink diamond in the world and many other jaw-dropping jewels.Text by Steve Smith.

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